Here equals After
by RouJoumis
Summary: What happens to characters when they die?  Do they wait somewhere, a limbo where fans and enemies meet them, carry out fantasies?  Some characters must be used to a lot of abuse.


She looks up, and slowly takes in the person before her. The girl – woman? – is sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere, staring off into space, brooding.

She slinks a bit closer. The hair – the body –

"You," she realizes . . .

The figure doesn't even turn. "Are you here to beat me up too? Get lost."

"You're the reason they hate me, aren't you?"

The woman turns and scowls. "Whaddya want? Leave me alone."

The girl takes another step. "It can't be . . . I'm not _you_. . ."

Eyes narrow. "Of course you're not. Look at you. Cute, young, probably think you're better than everyone else. That you can tell everyone what to do. Not because you're stronger, but because you're better, Miss High-and-Mighty." She sneers.

Eyes widen in shock. "What? I've _never_ told _anyone_ what to do!"

Disgust. "Then you're probably just another weakling. Just someone to be ignored." She turns away again.

Eyes in slits. "I _won't_ be ignored."

"I said, GET LOST." A swelling in the ground, a sudden push against the intruder. The girl swings out a hand and halts the blow.

"Don't."

The woman turns back, surprised and angry. "Who do you think you are??"

Angry now. A hand held out as a threat. Eyes that start to glow . . . "They hate me because of you. Because of what you made me."

Standing. Every limb taut with defiance, fisted hands held out low and to the sides. "Don't you dare blame me for anything. You made your own damn self. Anybody who tries to say otherwise is just too weak to stand up for themselves."

"If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be who I am!"

"You're just a stupid bitch, and that's not _my_ fault!"

Yelling with rage. The earth rising up, sweeping out to bury the woman. "Traitor! Liar! Selfish!"

The wave parting. Swearing as boulders fly up to counterattack. "You stupid little girl, I'm going to tear off your head and-"

"_You betrayed them!"_

Control snaps. "_YES! Yes, I betrayed them!_ And it's their own damn fault they were too stupid to see it coming! They were weak, and stupid, and they wanted everyone to _be like them!"_

Lava starts to rise against the girl. She holds out her hands and stops it, redirects it. It swirls around between them, caught in two flows, trapped between the two forces. "_You_ betrayed them, _you_ lied to them, _you_ left them! And because you did, so did I! I betrayed them and lied and left because _you did first!"_

Snarling. The lava surges, covering the girl. She just barely holds it back, barely keeps from burning alive. "You fucking bitch. You're just like all the rest. You couldn't possibly do anything like I did, oh no, because you're better than me, it must somehow be my fault, I'm the only one who could ever be so evil – you're just like all the other fucking bastards who come here and tell me how they're so much better than I am-"

"I AM better than you are!!" Panting. Pushing against the lava.

"Oh? I thought you were _like_ me. I thought you did everything _I_ did. I thought _everything_ you did was because of something _I_ did. _How the hell are you better than me?"_

"_Because I know better!"_ Fury beats against the molten rock. It expands, pushing away from her, still forming a shell. Trapped, but breaking free.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"I know better! Maybe I didn't know any better then, but I could have made better choices – I _should_ have made better choices – and then – then I _did_, I _did_ make the right choice, I did better than you ever did-"

"Oh, so I'm to blame for everything bad you ever did, but anything 'good' you did somehow makes you better than me? Is that how it is?"

"_It was my fault!_ You did it first and I hate you for that, they hate you for that, they hate me because I'm like you – but I shouldn't have been, I should have known better – but I _was_ like you! And it was my fault!" A shudder. The lava hardens instantly. The earth flies away, reaches up to cover the swearing woman. "I _am_ better than you. I should have _been_ better."

"You fucking bitch –"

"You're right, it was _my_ fault. I was like you. But I'm _not_ you."

The girl stands over the woman, holding her in place with adamant will.

"And I don't have to _be_ you."

The woman snarls and screams. And she slowly begins to change into the earth she had abused. . .

"I never had to be you. And I'm not going to any more." The strain shows in her fists, her shoulders, her face. But a kind of peace shows in her eyes.

The last of the woman turns to stone as the girl watches. "Not for me, anymore," she whispers. "Not for me. For them. For what you did to _them."_

She backs away. "I don't have any right to revenge," she says sadly. "It was all my fault."

The woman stands, frozen in hate.

She lifts her chin. "But no more," she says. "I won't be like you any more."

And she turns and walks away.


End file.
